Book Image

Test-Driven Java Development, Second Edition - Second Edition

By : Viktor Farcic, Alex Garcia
Book Image

Test-Driven Java Development, Second Edition - Second Edition

By: Viktor Farcic, Alex Garcia

Overview of this book

Test-driven development (TDD) is a development approach that relies on a test-first procedure that emphasizes writing a test before writing the necessary code, and then refactoring the code to optimize it.The value of performing TDD with Java, one of the longest established programming languages, is to improve the productivity of programmers and the maintainability and performance of code, and develop a deeper understanding of the language and how to employ it effectively. Starting with the basics of TDD and understanding why its adoption is beneficial, this book will take you from the first steps of TDD with Java until you are confident enough to embrace the practice in your day-to-day routine.You'll be guided through setting up tools, frameworks, and the environment you need, and we will dive right into hands-on exercises with the goal of mastering one practice, tool, or framework at a time. You'll learn about the Red-Green-Refactor procedure, how to write unit tests, and how to use them as executable documentation.With this book, you'll also discover how to design simple and easily maintainable code, work with mocks, utilize behavior-driven development, refactor old legacy code, and release a half-finished feature to production with feature toggles.You will finish this book with a deep understanding of the test-driven development methodology and the confidence to apply it to application programming with Java.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Title Page
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
9
Refactoring Legacy Code – Making It Young Again
Index

Behavior-driven development


Behavior-driven development (BDD) is an agile process designed to keep the focus on stakeholder value throughout the whole project. The premise of BDD is that the requirement has to be written in a way that everyone, be it the business representative, analyst, developer, tester, manager, and so on, understands it. The key is to have a unique set of artifacts that are understood and used by everyone—a collection of user stories. Stories are written by the whole team and used as both requirements and executable test cases. It is a way to perform TDD with a clarity that cannot be accomplished with unit testing. It is a way to describe and test functionality in (almost) natural language and make it runnable and repeatable.

A story is composed of scenarios. Each scenario represents a concise behavioral use case and is written in natural language using steps. Steps are a sequence of the preconditions, events, and outcomes of a scenario. Each step must start with the...